Release date:
|
October 27, 2017
|
Director:
|
Unnikrishnan B.
|
Cast:
Language:
|
Mohanlal, Manju
Warrier, Raashi Khanna, Vishal, Hansika Motwani, Siddique, Renji
Panicker, Chemban Vinod Jose, Aju Varghese
Malayalam
|
“Nothing is black,
nothing is white, everything is grey.”
“Life is a dark
comedy, Doctor, you’ve got to live it.”
“There is a villain
in every hero, a hero in every villain.”
As Mohanlal’s
character Mathew Manjooran delivered these and a slew of similar English lines in
this week’s Malayalam film release, Villain,
I could almost picture a writer at a narration session in Kerala, reading them
out to an admiring crew and bowing to expected waah-waahs. Whatever this
review’s response may be to such hollow bombast, it is clear that someone
somewhere was impressed, which is why this screenplay was greenlit and stars of
Lalettan and Manju Warrier’s stature came on board. What were they thinking?
Director
Unnikrishnan B’s Villain is packed with such pomposity.
The wisdom dispensed by Mathew in Malayalam dialogues is fair enough
considering the highly dramatised tone of the narrative in which they are set,
but the English lines – given almost entirely to him – are painfully grandiose
and stupid. And while the storyteller does manage to build an air of suspense
around the murder in its opening half, after a while it becomes clear that this
film is far less clever than it seems to think it is.
Mathew is a policeman in Kerala
with a reputation for brilliance. Following a family tragedy, he decides to
take voluntary retirement from the force. As he prepares for his exit, he is
requested by his seniors to stay on for a while to look into the murder of
three men at a building that has been lying locked for a while. They were
killed by poisonous injections, and Mathew’s investigations – aided by his
colleagues Harshita Chopra (Raashi Khanna) and Iqbal (Chemban Vinod Jose) –
lead him to a mysterious creature with whom he appears to have a connect.
In the background, we are told
the story of Mathew’s wife Neelima, a teacher played by Warrier, and their
daughter, an aspiring doctor.
At first, the plot is intriguing.
The moody background score, complemented by slick production and cinematography
manage to conjure up great expectations about events yet to unfold. Mathew is a
Sherlock Holmes like figure whose powers of deduction are projected as being at
the level of genius. Unfortunately, they are not. Some of his acute
observations are impressive, no doubt, but beyond a point the writer has him
arriving at truths that require great leaps of the imagination which are never
explained. With mere guesswork, for instance, and virtually no clues to support
his theory, he arrives at the scenario in which the three men were killed at
the beginning of the story. Later, he guesses young Harshita’s relationship
status with ‘logic’ that, frankly, defies logic. This happens repeatedly in the
film, diluting the fun to be had from his occasional astuteness.
(Possible
spoilers ahead)
Mohanlal lends gravitas to Mathew’s role, but his dialogue delivery, especially
in English, is strained – not quite as bad as the 2008 film Aakasha Gopuram, but somewhere in that
neighbourhood. Warrier is far more natural, but is given too little to do.
Vishal, who plays the main antagonist Dr Shaktivel
Palaniswamy does his best, but cannot possibly be faulted for the ordinary
characterisation.
The link between
the two men is tenuous and unconvincing. It leads to what could have been an
important discussion about the meaning of evil, the definition of murder (can
euthanasia be equated with a revenge killing?) and the value of dictatorship –
the latter particularly significant in the present global political scenario –
but the point is lost in a crowd of further pretentious dialogues. (Spoiler alert ends)
Villain is high on atmospherics and low
on substance. Mohanlal and Manju Warrier’s charisma is wasted here.
Rating
(out of five stars): *1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
|
U
|
Running time:
|
143 minutes
|
This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
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